“Influencers” Only Care About Your Clicks

“Influencers” only care about your clicks.

We read with interest a recent article in WaPo that highlights the effect of so-called “influencers” in one of the most heavily touristed areas in Italy. It's a starkly realistic picture of the tourist scene on the Amalfi Coast – a picture that is, by the way, decidedly NOT what visitors are hoping to find after watching "The Talented Mr Ripley" or clicking through Tik-Tok travel videos. 

We visited the Amalfi Coast about 15 years ago – in March, which was considered low season – and even then, the traffic and the crowds were too much for our (admittedly very low) tolerances. We haven’t returned since then, and consequently we never developed the depth and breadth of knowledge to craft itineraries there. But a lot of people contact us, wanting to go to Amalfi among other places.

In general, it’s natural to want to see these famous, one-of-a-kind locations that we’ve seen so much on social media and in the movies; and it’s understandable that travelers think that those representations are accurate. 

But they’re often not. These “influencers” (and some travel writers, depending on who is paying them) work hard to capture a certain image or video clip, solely to make viewers click on it. The influencers don’t much care if you actually go to the place or not; they just want the click, which translates to money in their pockets. Moreover, they don’t care that, if you do go, the view or the experience may well be nothing like what they portrayed. They don’t show the crowds, the heat, the delays, the traffic, the even more crowds – which are was NOT what you were led to expect. 

As travel planners consulting with clients, we often hear statements like this:
“I heard that [city, road, monument] is a Must-See.” 
"I HAVE TO get that [panino, gelato, cocktail] at that [shop/bar/panorama].”
“I saw pictures of that [artwork/piazza/overlook/pub], and I want to go to there too!”

For us as travel consultants, clicks don’t matter to us; repeat Little Roads travelers do. We want to make sure we’re planning a trip that meets the travelers’ desires, but also that gives them memorable experiences, not miserable ones. 
So our first response to those statements is usually something like: “What is it about those things/places that you are actually drawn to?” 

Sometimes it’s because they have a specific "need” to see the specific thing – their family is from such-and-such a place; they are photographers or they’re writing a book about a particular subject; or they simply have a lifelong dream to see that one particular thing, no matter the conditions or circumstances. Sometimes, it’s more just to fulfill an (often unconscious) urge to collect a checklist of places and experiences. ("Here’s me doing the thing at the place!”) 

To a degree, it’s understandable; after all, there is only one Mona Lisa, one Great Wall of China, one Big Ben, one Giant’s Causeway, one Old Faithful. In those cases, we might offer to lay out an itinerary for a traveler that begins on the day they set out with a rental car, after exploring (for example) Rome for a couple of days. But we do make sure to impart to them, to the best of our knowledge at least, a realistic impression of what they can expect in a place like Rome or Florence or Venice, or Dublin or Dingle or Blarney. 

On the other hand, sometimes the clients’ answer to our question (“What are you actually drawn to?”) is more broad: They want iconic, breathtaking landscapes, or ancient Roman ruins, or people-watching in fun cafes/pubs, or Renaissance art, or visiting colorful towns stacked up on a cliff. In that case, we offer many alternatives to the big hot-spots they’ve seen in the movies, suggesting places that deliver on these general desires without trodding the same paths as everyone else. 

In any case, we always try to let people know what they can expect – and, in the case of some of the big tourist hot-spots (like Amalfi, as described in this article), that isn’t always what they want to hear. But we think it’s better to know than not to know – and you can’t know by watching a carefully-scrubbed Tik-Tok video.